US network Sprout is to premiere Sixteen South Television’s ‘Pajanimals’ tonight, Monday October 10th at 8.00pm ET.
Co-produced by Sprout, The Jim Henson Company and Belfast’s ‘Sixteen South’, ‘Pajanimals’ is a 52x11 pre-school series designed to help parents and caregivers with a bedtime routine.

The series follows the adventures of four cuddly musical puppets: Sweetpea Sue the pony, Squacky the excitable duck, creative cow CowBella and optimistic puppy Apollo. The puppets were designed and created by the Jim Henson group from original concepts by LA based toy and clothing designer Jeff Muncy (Pet Alien). Production on the series began in July of this year in Belfast, and the show is being edited in Sixteen South’s edit suites in Belfast.

Andrew Beecham, senior vice president of programming at Sprout said ”Parents have told us that bedtime is one of the most challenging times of the day. Much like the short-form version of Pajanimals we debuted in 2008, this new full-length series provides more of these loveable characters modeling the typical day-to-bedtime transitions that preschoolers encounter every day. From separation anxiety to nightmares, the Pajanimals will tackle these challenges together every night with our viewers.”

The show is produced by Colin Williams of Sixteen South (Big City Park, Sesame Tree), with Lisa Henson, Halle Stanford, Alex Rockwell, Jeff Muncy and Andrew Beecham executive producing. Series directs are Dez McCarthy (Dick and Dom’s Funny Business) and Jack Jameson (Gigglebiz).

‘The Pajanimals’ received support from Northern Ireland Screen Fund, Invest NI and the European Regional Development Fund. Recently Variety and Broadcast both picked out ‘Pajanimals’ as one to watch at the Mipcom Junior market which took place in Cannes last week. For more information on ‘The Pajanimals’ and to view clips and play games, visit www.sproutonline.com.